Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“Chosen One” rubbish is just the Prophet making things up as usual.’
    ‘You were both there too, were you?’ said Slughorn with great interest, looking from Ginny to Neville, but both of them sat clamlike before his encouraging smile. ‘Yes … well … it is true that the Prophet often exaggerates, of course …’ Slughorn continued, sounding a little disappointed. ‘I remember dear Gwenog telling me – Gwenog Jones, I mean, of course, Captain of the Holyhead Harpies –’
    He meandered off into a long-winded reminiscence, but Harry had the distinct impression that Slughorn had not finished with him, and that he had not been convinced by Neville and Ginny.
    The afternoon wore on with more anecdotes about illustrious wizards Slughorn had taught, all of whom had been delighted to join what he called the ‘Slug Club’ at Hogwarts. Harry could not wait to leave, but couldn’t see how to do so politely. Finally the train emerged from yet another long misty stretch into a red sunset, and Slughorn looked around, blinking in the twilight.
    ‘Good gracious, it’s getting dark already! I didn’t notice that they’d lit the lamps! You’d better go and change into your robes, all of you. McLaggen, you must drop by and borrow that book on Nogtails. Harry, Blaise – any time you’re passing. Same goes for you, miss,’ he twinkled at Ginny. ‘Well, off you go, off you go!’
    As he pushed past Harry into the darkening corridor, Zabini shot him a filthy look that Harry returned with interest. He, Ginny and Neville followed Zabini back along the train.
    ‘I’m glad that’s over,’ muttered Neville. ‘Strange man, isn’t he?’
    ‘Yeah, he is a bit,’ said Harry, his eyes on Zabini. ‘How come you ended up in there, Ginny?’
    ‘He saw me hex Zacharias Smith,’ said Ginny, ‘you remember that idiot from Hufflepuff who was in the DA? He kept on and on asking about what happened at the Ministry and in the end he annoyed me so much I hexed him – when Slughorn came in I thought I was going to get detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and invited me to lunch! Mad, eh?’
    ‘Better reason for inviting someone than because their mother’s famous,’ said Harry, scowling at the back of Zabini’s head, ‘or because their uncle –’
    But he broke off. An idea had just occurred to him, a reckless but potentially wonderful idea … in a minute’s time, Zabini was going to re-enter the Slytherin sixth-year compartment and Malfoy would be sitting there, thinking himself unheard by anybody except fellow Slytherins … if Harry could only enter, unseen, behind him, what might he not see or hear? True, there was little of the journey left – Hogsmeade Station had to be less than half an hour away, judging by the wildness of the scenery flashing by the windows – but nobody else seemed prepared to take Harry’s suspicions seriously, so it was down to him to prove them.
    ‘I’ll see you two later,’ said Harry under his breath, pulling out his Invisibility Cloak and flinging it over himself.
    ‘But what’re you – ?’ asked Neville.
    ‘Later!’ whispered Harry, darting after Zabini as quietly as possible, though the rattling of the train made such caution almost pointless.
    The corridors were almost completely empty now. Nearly everyone had returned to their carriages to change into their school robes and pack up their possessions. Though he was as close as he could get to Zabini without touching him, Harry was not quick enough to slip into the compartment when Zabini opened the door. Zabini was already sliding it shut when Harry hastily stuck out his foot to prevent it closing.
    ‘What’s wrong with this thing?’ said Zabini angrily as he smashed the sliding door repeatedly into Harry’s foot.
    Harry seized the door and pushed it open, hard; Zabini, still clinging on to the handle, toppled over sideways into Gregory Goyle’s lap and, in the ensuing ruckus, Harry darted into the compartment, leapt on to Zabini’s temporarily empty seat and hoisted himself up into the luggage rack. It was fortunate that Goyle and Zabini were snarling at each other, drawing all eyes on to them, for Harry was quite sure his feet and ankles had been revealed as the Cloak had flapped around them; indeed, for one horrible moment he thought he saw Malfoy’s eyes follow his trainer as it whipped upwards out of sight; but then Goyle slammed the door shut and flung Zabini off him, Zabini collapsed